"School Meal Tastes Bad" Controversy Over Note by Police Trainee... School Says "Unusual, Will Provide Proper Guidance"

Controversy Over Post on Central Police Academy Cafeteria Bulletin Board
Prospective Police Officers Criticize Using Profanity
Lack of Proper Training Debate Spreads... "We Will Provide Better Guidance"

At the Central Police Academy, a training institution for police officers, controversy arose after some trainees left notes containing profanity on the cafeteria bulletin board, complaining that the food was not tasty. In response, the Central Police Academy stated that they would "properly guide the students."

[Image source=Online community capture]

On the 31st, Ahn Byung-no, head of the Student Guidance Office at the Central Police Academy, told Hankyoreh, “It is unusual for complaints of this nature to be posted,” adding, “On the evening of the 29th, we conducted about an hour of character education for approximately 130 student council executives and also collected suggestions from the trainees.” He further stated, “Since the Central Police Academy is an institution that trains ‘citizen police,’ character education is important, and we will do our best to prevent recurrence.”

Additionally, the Central Police Academy told Kukmin Ilbo, “These trainees have only been here for three months and are in the process of becoming police officers,” explaining, “We provide 24-hour education to about 2,500 civilians ranging in age from 20 to 45, and such an incident occurred.” They added, “Profanity normally results in penalty points, but since we do not know who wrote the notes, we are conducting special character guidance for the trainees.” They also emphasized, “Character is important for police officers,” and said, “It seems we have caused concern among the public. We will properly guide them.”

Earlier, a post-it note was posted on an online community showing notes attached to the Central Police Academy cafeteria’s suggestion board. The post-it notes contained profanity such as “XX tastes bad” and “Terrible, XXXX.” Although not profanity, there was also a strongly worded criticism saying, “Please do not prepare such menus again under the name of special meals. This is a warning.” The bulletin board was set up in the trainee-exclusive cafeteria operated by an external company to collect suggestions, and based on the date on the notes, it is presumed they were posted after lunch service on the 28th.

After the photo was made public, criticism arose that such language and behavior were inappropriate for police trainees. Comments poured in such as, “No matter how bad the food is, can grown adults only express themselves like that?” “They are making all decent police officers look bad,” “It’s the first time I’ve seen adults in their 20s and 30s use such profanity,” and “Regardless of the taste, this shows a lack of personal decorum.” However, following the ‘profanity post-it’ controversy, it was reported that new post-it notes with messages like “It was delicious” and “We are sorry” were newly attached to the cafeteria bulletin board.